British Film Academy Journal - Winter 1956-57.pdf (PDFy mirror)

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IntGrnatlonal Animated Film

m BniTISH FILM ACADEMY

WINTER SflB?

THE jounm of the BRITISH TM mm

EDITORIAL BOARD

Edgar Anstey (Chairman of Council)

John Bryan, Mary Field, o.b.e., Anthony Havelock-Allan, Vivienne Knight,
Roger Manvell, Paul Rotha, Mrs. P. J. Steele

Executive Editor: Roger Manvell - Associate Editor: Mrs. P. J. Steele

The Editorial Board is very grateful to John Halas for undertaking the Editorship of this special issue
of the Academy Journal, and lo the many companies and individuals who have supplied stills.

COHTEHTS

Editorial

The International Animated Film john halas

Great Britain john huntley

U.S.A. PHILIP STAPP

France jean image

, U.S.S.R. I. IVANOV-VANO

Canada guy l. cote

Poland wlodzimierz haupe

Czechoslovakia jaroslav broz

Book Review Adrian jeakins

Opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily represent those of the Academy.

The copyright of articles and other material published in the Journal remains with the Academy.
We will be grateful, therefore, if anyone wishing to enquire about the right to reprint any items
would write to the Director of the British Film Academy.

The Academy Council gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Kodak, Ltd. for placing funds
at their disposal to cover the costs of this issue of the British Film Academy Journal.

Published by

THE BRITISH FILM ACADEMY. 60 QUEEN ANNE STREET, LONDON, W.l

CBINTID IN GREAT BRITAIN

EDITOmi

THE MAIN PART of this JOURNAL is entirely devoted to the animated
film in all its many forms and purposes — cartoon and puppet, entertainment
and instruction, propa^nda and advertising. In several countries for different

purposes the animated film has been developed in recent years on a scale that
makes it an important, if separate, branch of production — with its own prob-
lems of artistry, technique and studio organisation. The Editorial Board of the
JOURNAL is grateful to John Halas for undertaking the editorship of this
issue, which we hope will serve as a useful introduction to the International
Festival of Animated Films which he is organising early in 1957 in London at
the National Film Theatre in association with the British Film Institute.

THE mTE&HATIONAL AHIMATEB FILM

JOHN HALAS

THE significant factor about the film industry
during the past few years is the sudden
revolution in cinema presentation. Whilst
great battles raged over the shapes of cinema

screens, from Cinerama and Cinemascope
to Cinemiracle, another revolution has talcen
place. But this has passed practically
unnoticed. No headlines, no posters to
publicise this event. It is the incredible
expansion of the animation film industry all
over the world.

The growth of animation output on a world
wide basis is, indeed, spectacular. In Western
Europe and in North America, production
has increased several times over the 1950
output, whilst, east of Germany, new centres
of production have emerged, particularly in
Poland, Rumania and even as far afield as
China. In England, too, output has risen
threefold in the last few years, with an increase
of personnel from 150 to over 400 artists.

This expansion is comparable to the sudden
growth of live-action production during the
period of 1922 to 1926. An interesting factor
about this expansion is that it has taken

place at a time when the world output of
live-action has gradually decreased. It must,
however, be realised that, even with the

present expansion, animation forms only a
small part in the total structure of the film
industry, although creatively a vital one.

The reason for the increased demand is not
entirely the new opportunities Television has
created for this medium. Television has
helped only cartoonists in the Western
countries; in the East other influences are
apparent. For instance, in Czechoslovakia,
Poland and China animated cartoons and
puppet films are fostered as national arts and,
as a result, such productions enjoy direct state
sponsorship in the same way as our Old Vic
Theatre. Similarly, animation in Russia is

1

integrated into the national film programme,
and plays quite a considerable part in
providing entertainment for the younger
generation. The Moscow cartoon film studio
now numbers 550 artists and, as in other
eastern countries, the cartoon industry is still
in the process of expansion to provide more
and a wider variety of entertainment films.
Oft the other hand, here and further west,
animated film production for theatrical
entertainment has, if anything, receded.
Against this, new avenues have opened up for
animation, in the form of industrial sponsor-
ship — sponsorship through international
authorities for informational cartoons, adver-
tising films for cinemas and Television, and
entertainment programme films for Television.
These new sources of work have attracted
some of the leading artists previously engaged
on theatrical films, as well as quite a few
talented artists from outside the film industry.
However, it must be realised that, here in the
West, the revenue from cinema cartoons has
dropped so drastically due to the reluctance
of the cinemas to raise the rentals even above
pre-war level, that it is becoming impossible
to recoup the high cost of production.
Animation therefore depends increasingly
on the other sources of sponsorship. The fact
that an expansion is in progress proves how
much the public enjoys and appreciates this
medium.

The medium of animation at its best can be
an important factor both in the creative
cinema and in graphic art. In such categories,
the quantitative expansion of large footages
turned out in many countries matters little.
The inquiring mind of an experimentalist
or an uncompromising attitude of an artist
with his pencil matters more than large output.
The spirit of experimentalism against heavy
odds is typical of this medium, but, on the
other hand, it is significant to notice that the
masters of this medium are possibly the last

remnants of guild art craftsmen remaining in
our century.

The elements of an animated picture —
story, movement, time, colour, design, tex-
ture, sound and free imagination — are ap-
parent in different territories to widely
varying extents. For instance, we are
accustomed to expect excellent timing, expert
animation and sufficient imagination, mainly
in comic-strip technique, from the U.S.A., but
it is a pleasant surprise if such values are
noticeable in films made in Czechoslovakia
and Japan. Accually, the teclinicai supremacy
of American cartoons no longer exists. We
notice in the last few years the incredible
technical advancement and perfection of the
P.ussian cartoons, and regret bitterly the
conspicuous absence of up-to-date design and
the lack of free imagination. In this respect,
the Russian cartoon is not unlike the average
Hollywood animal cartoon product, but with
a slower timing to suit the local audience. On
the other hand, we notice that films arriving
from Canada contain the ingredients of the
best design and wonderful texture, indicating
a progressively free spirit amongst the
creators. Films from China reveal good
intentions in an endeavour to use imaginative
fantasy, but, as yet, the technical skill is
lacking. The opportunity is there, if not the
experience. On the other hand, in France
experience is more readily available than the
opportunity to make theatrical cartoons, and
we notice that the best efforts are achieved by
courageous, individual animators whose work
excels more in the category of pictorial values
than in good story telling.

From broad perspective, it is encouraging

to see this medium becoming so much an
integral part of national film activity in so
many countries. So far, however, the public
has only had the cMnce to see American
cartoons, due to their octopus-like world

2

distribution. The first international animated
film festival in Britain which will take place
at the National Film Theatre during February
and March 1957 will try to show how wide the
production of animated films has spread
throughout the world.

The process of making cartoon films is
closely confined over an animation desk, and
therefore it is not a habit among cartoonists
to work over each other's shoulders. There
is thus little chance of personally inter-
changing ideas and methods, in spite of the
fact that the final results are so international.
It is hoped that our festival will bring together
for the first time in England a number of
interesting minds to set off a few sparks.

The screening of some 150 films, including

12 out of the 31 features ever produced,
should prove the great flexibility of which
animation is capable and the very wide variety
of styles. But eat purpose has also an im»
mediate practical intention. At this moment,
the newsreel and specialised cinemas are
short of good, new animated films. There
need not be a shortage. European animation
developed some time ago to standards at
least equal to those achieved by the United
States in the theatrical field. The best of the
Continental films are gradually being shown
in local cinemas. It is high time that Euro-
pean cartoons received similar treatment. It
is hoped that cinema exhibitors, as well as our
film-maker colleagues and the public, will
find the contents of the festival interesting,
entertaining and beneficial.

Representatives from the seven major
producing countries will contribute short
articles to this issue, giving a background of
the operations and future expec^tions- of
animation activities in their respective
countries, in the hope that their information
will widen the knowledge of our individual
operations to our mutual benefit.

The History of the Cinema (Great Britain)

reat cJOritain

ANIMATION IN BRITAIN

JOHN HUNTLEY

IN America, most animation \vori< is linked with tiie
major studios. Tom and Jerry come from the M.G.M.
studios, Popcyc from Paiamount. Tweety Pie from
Warners: even tlie U.P.A. unit works under the general
umbrella of Columbia, whilst Disney's is almost a separate
major studio in itself.

In Britain, animation is a family business, operating in
the style of the medieval craftsmen's guilds. The Units
tend to stay together in small communities, usually in
converted houses or tiny offices. Personnel grow up with
their production companies, often entering the business
direct from University or Art School. Training is done by
experience, as the young learn from the old in the day-to-day
work at the animation tables. There is a struggle to maintain
continuity of production. Leadership is based on the
personality of one or two people who often manage the
whole operation as a kind of family concern, imposing their
style to a degree which they themselves would scarcely admit,
for many strive to encoin agc as much individual experiment
as possible amongst those who work for them.

The Units are divided into four main categories, hiisl.
there are the groups who produce sponsored films but,
because they have been in existence for a long time and have
estabhshed some measure of independence, are able to
conduct occasional experiments that lead to theatrical
distribution, or even to produce films specifically for the
entertainment market. Halas and Batchelor Productions are
a Unit of this kind.

John Halas came to this country before the War. having
worked in Hungary with George Pal: Joy Batchelor first
met him in London and shared in the making of animation
films, both here and in Budapest. They married and now
operate the company under joint control. Like most British
Units, they depend on sponsorship of various forms for their
existence. This comes from three main sources:

1. Official Bodies. GoYcrnnieni Departmenlx or Inler-
iiaiional Aiiilioritics. Examples of hims made recently in
this category include To Your Health, for the World Health
Organisation : Basic Fleetwork, for the Admiralty ; The Sea,
for the Ford Foundation; and The Candlemaker, for the
United Lutheran Church in America.

2. Sponsorship ihrout^h liuluslry. Recent films include
Power 10 i'ly, for the British Petroleum Company, and
Invisible Exchange for Shell.

3. Direct Advertisments, made now mainly for Com-
merical Television. Halas and Batchelor made the famous
Murraymints series, as well as a special series for
Dunlop.

4

Mr. Fmley'd Feelings, Earth is a Battlefield;
Brttvic Commercial, The Oas Turbine (Great Britain)

Using the resources gained over years
of work in the "bread-and-butter" business,

Halas and Batchelor have been able to amuse
themselves (and very large cinema audiences)
with such pictures as their delightful History
of the Cinema, which was chosen for the
Royal Film Performance in 1956. Of a more
serious character was the feature length
Animal Farm, a rare example of an attempt
to use the cartoon film for the interpretation
of a complicated political satire. The Unit
that made these films is now ninety strong;
it is run personally by John Halas and Joy
Batchelor. both of whom arc active at every
stage in the making of the films as well as
handling the com.plicaied business problems
that arise in sustaining the flow of the spon-
sorship so^^ential_to_their_i^^
t ence.^ The sBapmg'ofspirdling movements
around little twirls of Nlatyas Sfeiber's clever
wood-wind orchestrations in well-known tunes
is characteristic of their work, as well as a
love of perky, bouncing little men who tackle
everything from Income Tax forms to oil-well
di illing with a gay, impertinent but pleasing
confidence.

Halas and Batchelor produced the first
feature-length cartoon in this country (Animal

Farm), the first stereoscopic experiment in ani-
mation ( The Owl and tlie Piissyeat ). and the first
major puppet-animation production (ligure-
head). Ever since their formation in 1940, they
have remained completely independent of any
vfinancial links with other organisations.

The second type of Unit in Britain is that
devoted entirely to sponsored work, but
taking full advantage of the chances ottered
them by enlightened business concerns to
experiment. The William Larkins Studio,
operated by Geoffrey Sumner and Theodore
Thumwood. was started in 1942 tmder the
name of Analysis Films. It became part of
the Film Producer's Guild in 1947 and, as
Larkins Studio, has since produced about 820
short animated films. There are seventy
people in the Unit, which turts Out about
30,000 feet of final-cut material a year.
Personnel tends to remain static, and the
Unit's tradition in training can be gathered
from the fact that, on a recent prize-winning
film, the average age of the production team
was 23.

Animal Farm (Great Britain)

As in the case of Halas and Batchelor,
certain of their films have hroiccn through to
the theatrical field, although they have not so
far made films except to order. Men of Merit .
for example, was shown in some 3,000 cinemas
in this country alone; 602 copies were printed
by Technicolor. The studio's style is still,
perhaps almost unconsciously, influenced by
the work of Peter Sachs, notably by his
angular figures, clear-cut lines and sharply-
defined backgrounds, in which detail is
reduced to a minimum. Earth is a Battlejield.
their current production, has a clc\er exten-
sion of the technique in a series of disjointed,
cut-out figures which perform to a sound track
in the rhyming style of Enterprise, an earHer
film by Peter Sachs.

The third main type of animation Unit is
exemplified by Nicholas and Mary Spargo's
group at Henley-on-Thames. Formed to
produce material specifically for Commercial
Television, the Unit now consists of eleven
people working in a large room over a shop
in the centre of the town. Following the
well-established pattern, there are already
two trainees in the group, working on the
fifteen, thirty- and fifty-second commercials
for which the Unit was set up. Because they
are lively and imaginative, work flows at a
fast pace; Nicholas Spargo spends much of his
time on the business side at the moment, while
his wife is usually to be found in the studio.
Both gained their experience in the tough
school of the David Hand Unit at Cookham.

In addition lo the independent units,
there are a number of small animation groups
in Britain attached to certain large organisa-
tions like the Shell Film Unit. Francis
Rodker and a small team of specialists have
been producing excellent diagrams and
animated sections for the Shell Unit since
its formation in 1935. Three animation
cameras are in use, each producing about
4,000 feet of exposed film a year.

A Slutrl Visitiit. Doun a Long Way (Great Britain)

Finally, there are the experimental groups,
whose status borders between professional
and amateur. Typical is the case of .loan and
Peter Foldcs. who produce animated films
in their own home in Edgware. Peter Foldes,
like John Halas, came to London from
Hungary; he met his wife here and they now
work together on all their films. Animated
Genesis, their first film, was made on their own
resources up to picture rough-cut stage. It
was then shown to the British Film Institute,
who persuaded Sir Alexander Korda to see it;
he completed the sound track and gave the
picture distribution through British Lion.
A Short Vision, the six-minute story of an
artist's impression of the world destroyed by
nuclear fission, was also made as a private
venture in the beginning; it was completed
with the help of the British Institute's
Experimental Production Fund, and later
shown on .American television.

The personal quality of British animation
films dcri\es from the struggle for indepen-
dence, the imprint of a beneficent sponsorship
and the style of those w ho founded their own
groups and continue to run them. The system
is not without drawbacks. Experiment,
especially in subject matter, is always subor-
dinate to the needs of the sponsor. Full
public screenings are the exception, however
delicate the advertisement. The Units are
too busy with their own work to indulge
in large-scale publicity. They have to contend
with the fact that the major circuits are, by-
and-large, completely deaf to their work.
By contrast many European countries en-
courage the work of their animation units.

In spite of these difiiculties, British animated
films have won many international awards.
These films arc being used increasingly in the
United States, both in the cinemas and over
television. The battle for a screening is being
won at long last; in every country, except
Britain.

6

Murraymints Commercial, The Owl and the Pussycat (Great Britain)

CU.SM

ANIMATED FILMS IN TBI! U.S.A.

PHILIP STAPP, New York

AT THE Cannes Film Festival in the spring of
1956 I overheard a ticket laker remark to a
puzzled tourist who evidently had tried un-
successfully to get into the premiere of one of
the full length feature presentations, "11 y a
aussi des petites dessins-animes." Judging
from the tone in which he spoke, half
condescending, half affectionate, his words
seemed to imply "tough luck, but as a
consolation there are some little cartoons to
be seen if you care to have a look." He was
referring to the International Festival of
Animated Films which was taking place al the
same time in another part of the cinema
Palais. His attitude was similar to that of the
general run of movie-goer everywhere. The
cartoon is usually considered a pleasing
little hers d'oeuvre to be enjoyed along with
more substantial fare. That this hors d'oeuvre
is welcome is apparent in the little murmurs
of anticipated delight which still rtm through
most audiences when the faces of Pluto,
Mickey Mouse or Mr. Magoo come on to the
screen. It is as though the atidience realizes
that for a few minutes they will be spared the
sensational horrors which so often appear
in the newsreel, or the tired cliches of a third
rate travelogue. With the cartoon the
audience can enter into a realm of pure
fantasy, in which the laws of gravity are non-
existent, where pain is not pain and where
characters become symbols or stereotypes,
not to be taken very seriously.

The audience which strayed in to see the
animated films at Cannes (the tickets were

free) bore little resemblance to the self-
conscious, publicity hungry international
set which attended the gala openings of the
longer features. The cartoons were attended
by the producers themselves, a motley crew
from every corner of the earth, and casual
spectators from the streets, curious and
unprejudiced. It was interesting to watch
the reaction of this audience to films which
ranged all the way from animated folk tales of
Texas to heavy political propaganda from
both sides of the iron curtain. The actor who
drew the most spontaneous outburst of
laughter was that ageless veteran whose
career has remained unchanged throughout
the years, Mr. Donald Duck. His frustration
in the film which so delighted the audience
was caused by liis ineffectual efforts to fall
asleep in spite of a relentless neon light which
kept flashing off and on, and the insistent
sound of dripping water from a tap which
gradually increased in his imagination until
each drop seemed a bomb visibly shaking the
whole earth with rhythmic concussions.
Donald's frustration seemed on that after-
noon in Cannes to touch a note of under-
standing which reached across the barriers of
language and nationality. This particular film
was. as always with Disney, elaborately'
animated, no economy tricks employed, no
corners cut. The sound track with its
metamorphosis of dripping water to world-
shaking "booms" was imaginative and ap-
propriate to the medium. Also, like most
of Disney's films, it was a sample of the usual

7

I

over-cute style with background drawings
similar to the easiest kind of commercial
advertising.

Tt is impossible to cotisider the animated

film in the United States without thinking
first of Disney. After 30 years his name is
still synonymous with the short cartoon in the
minds of most of the American movie-
audience. Sometimes during the long period
since his first exciting Silly Symphonies
appeared, the work from his large organisa-
tion in California seemed to have sunk into
the doldrirais. Formula replaced invention.
The medium lost its initial public appeal.
Disney's excursions into the field of "live
action" have been sometimes rewarding,
sometimes disappointing. Some of the wild
life films have recaptured the excitement of his
early cartoons, while the romantic historic
costume pieces have often seemed banal.
Always a clever showman, he has recently
built a large fun fair, of amusement park in
California which serves also as a setting for
television programme material. When, from
time to time, a new feature length cartoon
appears, such as Lady and The Tramp, in
which the chief characters are dogs, one is
amazed at the technical slickness of the
animation and annoyed by the weak story line,
which seems to be influenced by the wish
to include every sure-fire box-offi©B trick.
This approach does not lead to any fresh
experiments within the medium.

It was the short film Gerald McBoing-
Boing which first brought a radical change of
style to the attention of the public in America
and soon after to the cinema-goers in Europe.
This highly orifinal short film, produced by
U.P.A. Pictures, with inely inte^ted music
by Gail Kubik and with sophisticated visual
elements, seemed to satisfy a public at that
time weary of the Disney formula. The
talented minds which produced "Gerald"
had made previous cartoons in which visual
wit and economical animation had replaced
the elaborately evolved techniques established
by the larger studios, but these films had never
been seen in the theatres. Some of the U.P. A.
men had worked previously in the Disney
Studios. The organisation under the leader-
ship of Stephen Busustow has now expanded
into the field of television. Robert Cannon,
one of the most brilliant U.P. A. directors,
brings a fertile imagination and fresh ap-
proach to each new film he creates. Another
director, Pete Burness, who has been with
the U.P. A. since its early days, has created a

now popular cartoon character, Mr. Magoo,
whose blithe innocence and near-sightedness
leads him unscathed and unconcerned through
the violence of the modern world. Mr.
Magoo, hke Donald Duck, has become a
belowd international persontlity.

The U.P.A. style, according to their own
spokesmen, derives from "modern" art. It is
uncluttered, flat and often linear. The
characters do not seem bound by any natural
physical laws of movement. Pcrliaps one of
the greatest contributions of the U.P.A. is
thatlhey have shown the public that the less
realistic a movement is, the more creditable
it becomes optically. Disney sometimes
bases the movement of his characters on live
action models, as with Alice in Alice in
Wonderland. The greater the clTort to
imitate realistic movement, the more apt
one is to be aware of the stroboscopic
nature of the medium, the more jittery the
result. If legs are used to express the symbol
of walking, rather than the imitation of
walking, the illusion of movement is more
acceptable, a paradox which indicate the
validity of the "modern" art approach. Like
any device this simplification can be carried
too far. If the human figure becomes loo
abstract it may lose all its expressive power.
Usually the U.P.A. figures, moving flatly on a
flat screen are consistent, humorous and
convincing.

Less effective have been certain of the
U.P.A. attempts to animate the drawings of
"big name" illustrators, such as Thurber and
Bemelmans. The Unicorn in tlte Garden and
Madeline are examples. Since the quality of
both Thurber's and Bemelmans' drawings
depends on a subtlety and unevenness of line
which is impossible to use in the animation
technique, where every celleloid must have an
almost mechanical similarity, the flavour of
the original is lost and the result is far less
successful than the work of lesser known
artists, whose training within the film medium
has taught them its restrictions.

Nevertheless, the U.P.A. has been a healthy
influence in the United States. The proof
that a new style has had its effect on Disney
and his imitators is seen in their efforts to
modernise their own productions. Disney
has released a short history of music called
Whistle, Toot, Plunk and Boom, which seemed
to imply that if his studios wished, they too
could work in the "modern" style. The
popular M.G.M. films, with incredibly fast
pacing and surrealist gags, seem also to have

8

been influenced by the general trend toward
simplification and more abstract charac-
terisation.

The U.P.A. quite Justly boasts that its
background painters arc serious modern
artists, some oF whom exhibit in well known
galleries and have work in art museums.
But the real problem of any single individual
in the United States who wants to use the
animated film as a creative medium is quite
different from the problem of the easel
painter. Film-making has become, although
not necessarily, a collective undertaking. An
individual artist, in making a film, must
face the fact that the essence of animation is
the creation of an illusion of movement
synchronised to a composed sound track.
This requires a certain knowledge of music
and of choreography of line, form and colour.
Even if the artist masters these elements, he is
then confronted with the inescapable fact
that to produce even a short film involves a
costliness out of proportion to the creation of
the other arts. Few individuals are free to
cope with this dilemma. Norman McLaren,
in Canada, is the outstanding exception.
McLaren, since he began, has woi'ked alone,
or with the single collaboration of a com-
poser. His experiments are the direct impact
of his own ideas on to film. No assembly line
of animators, tracers and pointers ttaaids
between him and his finished produet, Bwt
McLaren is subsidised by the Canadian Film
Board which, in the face of some opposition,
has had the courage to defend the position
that McLaren's contribution has brought
them large dividends in prestige. Surely it is
accurate to say that the most forward looking
groups of film-makers owe much to McLaren's
researches.

In the United States a few colleges with
courses of study in film techniques provide
the student with equipment and the oppor-
tunity to experiment. It is loo soon for these
islattds of isola^ effort to show any tangible
results on the professional field. Certain
foundations in the United States have, in the
past, granted stipends to individuals for
"creative work in film-making". These
generous grants made it possible for an
individual to plan a film, but it is outside of
their scope to prox ide the vastly greater sum
of money necessary for production. Few
of these projects have been realised. Sponsors
who c/o provide enough money for even a one-
reeler quite understandably want the film to
sell their product, no matter whether it be soap,

To Your Health (Great Britain-U.S.A.)
Tom and Jerri). Balantine Commercial.
TV Commercial for a Restaurant (U.S.

The Lady and the Trump (U.S.A.)

cancer research or democracy. Which does
not mean that good films cannot be made on
these themes. But there is little chance for the
individual to produce a genuinely experi-
mental film on his own subject.

It is difiicult to say what the future of this
medium in the U.S. will be. At present
animation is still popular in the entertainment
fields and in commercial television. Some of
the most imaginative uses of animation at
present are in one-minute TV commercials.
Animation is in demand in those sponsored
industrial films where a mechanical concept
can be shown more clearly than it can in live-
action. Animation is also useful in industrial
films which try to express abstract ideas or
fantasy.

Donald Duck, in his better movements,
still communicates to an international
audience. It would be interesting to speculate,
however, as to what animation might have

been if Disney had not had his enormous
influence. In the first place, animation
might not necessarily have been only cartoon.
The simplest visual element, a dot, or a line,
can become a dancing symbol and convey an
idea, an association. These ideas could be
developed with other means than by con-
ventional story telling. The film need not
always be based on a literary concept. It
could be, for the spectator, an experience
like seeing dancing, or hearing music. Within
the medium not only new forms, but new
ways of expression could be evolved. The
animated film need not always be a pastische,
a sequence of gags or a fairy tale. It could
be a powerful medium. It is condensed and
potent. Like most potent things, it is better in
small doses. But in a brief time it can pack a
terrific punch. In the end its possibilities are
limited only by the imagination of the film-
maker.

10

3^r

Mr. Magoo Beats the Heat, Madeline (XT.S.A.)

ranee

What Future is there for the Animated Film?

JEAN IMAGE, Paris

BETWEEN 1942 and 1953, our production of
entertainment short and feature-length car-
toons was relatively flourishing; advertising
cartoons had not yet attained their present-
day importance.

After producing three feature-length films :
La Bcrsrax et Ic Raiiioiieur (Paul Grimault
and Andre Sarrut), J cannot r /ntrc'picle and
Bonjour Paris (Jean image) and a certain
number of shorts such as Lc Peril So'clal, Le
Voleur de Paratonnenes (Paul Grimault),
Le Troubadour de laJoie (Omer Bocquey), Les
Actualites Romaines (Jacques Remise), Kapok
(Arcady), Les Aventures du Capitaine Sabord
(Andr6 Rigal), Les Fables de la Fontaine (Jean
Image), French cartoon films obtained world-
wide success and rewards at Film Festivals.

It should be stressed that the greater part
of these productions were made under pri-
mitive working conditions, and their distri-
bution was never assured. Towards 1953, in
spite of every effort, nearly all production of
non-advertising animated films was stopped;
alone Henri Gruel and Jean Image continued
their efforts to maintain French production in
this field.

Here are the films produced between 1955
and 1 956 : Le Voyage de Badabou, La Rose et le
Radis Noir (Henri Gruel), Le Loup et I'Agneau,
Monsieur Victor or La Machine a rctrouver le
Temps (Jean Image).

The constant progress made by advertising
animated films during the last ten years is
indisputable. As well as the two largest
production companies, La Comete and Les

Cineastes Associes, many producers are
devoting themselves exclusively to this form
of the cartoon film. Strong influences of
"modernism" and "stylisation" are notice-
able in the latest productions, and it is
undeniable that on this level the French
animated cartoon is amongst the best in the
world, the proof being that our studios work
not only for France but also steadily for the
United States, Great Britain, Belgium, and
other countries.

It should be noted that outside the tech-
nique of animated cartoon, France has been
for some time among the leading countries
developing three-dimensional puppets,
through the work of Raik and AlcxeifT.

Parallel to the advertising film, production
is also carried out in France on instructional
films and animated-diagrams; .lean Image's
studios produced in 1955 the first lO-minute
instructional film in cartoon form in colour
for the French Mining Industry called:
Un Grain de Bon Sens.

Such is the present position. As for the
future, I believe that world television offers
countless openings for animation. Already a
very large number of advertising films are
being made for television, it is true that for
the moment telex ision in France does not use
advertising, but nearby stations such as
Luxembourg and Monte Carlo will be needing
more and more short advertising films.

The big opportunity offered to us is
colour television, which is making such a
briUiant start in America. Short subjects of

11

from 7 to 13 minutes will be requiFed for this
form of entertainment, which will soon be

introduced to European stations.

We are well aware of the gi'eat success
which the work of Walt Disney and U.P.A.
has obtained on American television, and we
believe that we have before us imoieMq
possibilities for nevy forms of artistic eXf r8S-
sioii stjitable to this new kind of entertain-
ment.

In front of the small television screen, with
its family audience, a kind of intimacy is
gi'ow ing up between the artist tilm-maker and
the spectator. The new factor is that while
we are in fact addressing millions of spec-
tators at one time, each one of them must be
addressed individually: in fact "intimate"
films must be created for "millions of people".

In fact, at the moment. French animated
film producers want nothing more than to
exploit to the full their intci'national success
in advertising films. According to the latest
reports given at the Cannes Festival on the
subject of advertising films, 27 aniroated films
were shown by foreign organisations, which
proves that the animated film (such as
puppet-films by Alexeiff" and Raik, and car-
toons by two or three big specialised organisa-
tions) has reached its greatest level of
prosperity since its conception in France.

The principal preoccupation of designers
and producers of these films is novelty of
expression, novelty not only in subject
matter but also on the drawing-board.
Taking into account all that is being done, one
wondcis what will be the future of this kind
of development and whether the advertisers
who are at present interested in this type of
publicity will maintain their preference for
this kind of film. It is a fact, however, that it
is through cartoons and puppet films that
advertising can be most efi'ectivein the short-
est possible time. This affects also Interlude
transmissions for television as much as adver-

tising films. A
great challenge
is offered to
artists and
animated film
producers to
find something
"new".

The non-
advertising and
non -sponsored
film can rarely
survive outside
the frame-work
of a state-sub-
sidised organi-
sation; the interesting and prospering
Canadian experiment (National Film Board
of Canada) shows that a result can be obtained
on this level within a democracy.

An experiment is being made in France at
the moment which aims to band together the
few remaining independent animated film
producers — or those wishing to acquire
independence — to pool, as it were, their work
in animation. This organisation would aim
to make experimental films and carry out
research with the object of finding freshness
of style and also of technique.

At the time of writing, nothing definite
can be said yet about this new scheme, except
the fact that the idea was first proposed at the
Animated Film Festival at Cannes where, at
last, after years of competition and isolation,
our producers were able to meet, exchange
ideas, explain their difficulties, and express
their desire for a solution to their problems.
It was realised that there is still a future for
this work in France, where the animated film
was invented Just over 50 years ago. and that
following the fine work produced duiing the
years 1945-50 there is also hope for the
animated film for both cinema and television.

La Sergtre et le Ramonevr, Vn Cfratn de Bon Sena,
Ombrille et Paraplute (France)

(U.S.SM.

Zmm FILMS IN SOVIET UNION

I. IVANOV-VANO, Moscow

GREAT importance for the development of

cartoon films in the Soviet Union attaches to
the Government's decision in 1936 to set up
in Moscow a special cartoon studio —
Soyuzmultfilm. This studio brougiu together
a number of the main groups \vori<ing on
cartoons in Moscow under the direction of
veterans of Soviet cartoon-making.

During the first stage of Soyuzmultfilm's
development it included groups working
under the following artists: A. V. Ivanov and
P. P. Sazonov; O. P. Khodatayeva and the
sisters Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg;
I. Ivanov-Vano; D. N. Babichenko; L. A.
Amalrik; V. I. Polkovnikov; V. G. Suteyev;
B. P. Dezhkin. Later these were joined by
artists from Leningrad, M. M. Tsekhanovsky
and M. S. Pashchenko, and by a representa-
tive from Armenia. L. K. Atamanov. These
film-makers remain to this day the basic
artistic nucleus of the Soyuzmultfilm studio.

The unification of small, scattered cartoon
studios into one large studio of ali-Union
importance did not deprive directors and

artists of their individuality; on the contrary
it made possible the development of more
advanced undertakings from the point of
view both of artistry and production, and
set cartoon-making in our country on a new
path.

The Soyuzmultfilm studio is today the

biggest studio for the production of cartoon
films in Europe, not merely in the Soviet
Union. It is equipped with the latest in
modern apparatus for new technical processes,
and has on its staff a large number of artists
specialising in various branches of cartoon
production.

The lines along which Soviet cartoon-
making is developing are extremely varied.
Political and social satire, film "pamphlets",
cartoon posters, scientific and educational
cartoons, fables, fairy-tales (both traditional
and modern), fantasy, musical comedy —
these are only a few of the genres in which
Soviet cartoon-makers are working. But in
spite of this variety, there is one line of

development which can be said to be the main
one in Soviet cartoons, and that is the filming
of fairy-tales, the world of fantasy and
caricature. The main audiences for which we
are working are children of all age-groups.
The main task the Soyuzmultfilm studio was
given at its inception was the provision of films
for children and young people. During the
thirty years of its existence it has coped
creditably with this task, and in the course of
recent years can claim successes of .some
importance.

Children's cartoon films from the Soviet
Union are well known beyond the bounds
of our country. Films such as The Little
Hump- Backed Horse directed by I. Ivanov-
Vano and Giey Neck directed by L. Amalrik
and V. Polkovnikov have been shown with
great success in America as well as in
Europe. Director Mstislav Pashchenko's
films Forest Travellers, When the Christmas
Trees Are Lit, The Disobedient Kitten and
The Unusual Match have appeared on the
screens of many countries.

Equally well known is the work of the
directors Leonid Amalrik and Vladimir
Polkovnikov — The High Hill, The Magic Shop,
The Arrow Flies Into Fairyland and Snowball
Postman ; and the work of Mikhail Tsekhanov-
sky, who in recent years has directed The Tale
of the Fisherman and the Fish, Kashtanka and
The Frog Princess. The talented director Lev
Atamanov also has some interesting works to
his credit — The Yellow Stork, The Crimson
Flower and, particularly, his Golden Antelope;
the same can be said of Alexander Ivanov and
his Rab and Bit. The Painted Fox, Deep In
the Forest, The Pipe and the Bear, etc. A
number of Soviet cartoons — Song of Joy,
The Fox and the Blackbird, The Little Hump-
Backed Horse, The Seven-fold Flower, Grey
Neck, The Disobedient Kitten, The Painted
Fox, The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish,
The Unusual Match, The Magic Shop, Sarmiko,
The Gallant Heart, Deep in the Forest, Fire in
Yaranga etc. — have received first prizes
and diplomas of honour at international film
festivals.

13

At the present time large numbers of
Soviet cartoons are being dubbed into the
languages of Europe, Asia and of a number of
African countries; they are, in fact, being
shown today in fifty-nine different countries.

The central cartoon film studio Soyuzmult-
film has sixteen full-scale production groups
engaged on regular planned work. Each
production group possesses its own character,
and works in its own particular style.

Alongside the "old masters" of our art
there is growing up a new and talented
generation of cartoon directors and artists;
for instance, the young director Ivan Aksen-

chuk, to whom belongs the excellent produc-
tion The Hazel Wand, based on the Rumanian
folk-tale of the same name; Yevgeni Raikov-
sky and Vladimir Degtyarev, who have made
an interesting film from a Korean folk-tale —
Pak the Brave: also the talented artist
Yevgeni Migunov, and others; in the near
future they will carry on with honour the
work of the older generation of Soviet
cartoonists. The ranks of those working in
cartoon films are reinforced by a planned
intake of new recruits: in the All-Union
State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK)
special training is provided for artists who will
later work in cartoons. All those students
who have successfully completed these courses
in the Institute are now working satisfactorily
at the Soyuzmultfilm and other cartoon
studios within the Soviet Union. The names
of former students of the Institute who are
now talented cartoon artists are well-known
in the Soviet Union. Apart from this source
of new workers, the Soyuzmultfilm studio
itself trains cartoon artists at courses it
organises independently, and which are
attended by thirty young artists who passed a
competitive entrance examination.

In recent years the masters of cartoon-
making have come to turn more and more
often to the best examples of folk art and of
classical literature for their subjects, and have
striven to re-create on the screen not only the
idea and content of such works, but the full
flavour of their particular artistic form.
Directors have begun to approach a script,
regarding it not as an opportunity for the
production of a spectacle full of tricks and
transformations, but as the basis for the
general sense of the film and for its artistic
character. For this reason a whole series of
well-known children's authors and script-
writers have been drawn into work on
cartoons, and Soviet cartoons have them to

thank for the ideas behind many of the best
works produced in the post-war years.

In Moscow there are a number of special
children's cinemas which show nothing but
cartoons. In their repertoire of Soviet

cartoons for children there are fables,
Russian folk-talcs and folk-talcs of other
peoples of the USSR, the classical fairy-
stories of Pushkin, stories and little tales in
verse for very small children, lilms about
sport, musical films and adventure stories.
At the present time the Soyuzmultfilm studio
is preparing for release fairy-tales of many
nations. Hans Andersen's Ugly Duckling, in a
cartoon version produced by a young director,
Vladimir Degtyarev, is already being shown.
So is a full-length film. The Enchanted Boy,
based on the fantasy by the Swedish authoress
Selma Lagerlof. This film has a script by
M. Volpin; the directors are Vladimir
Polkovnikov and Alexandra Snezhko-
Blotskaya; artists — Lev Milchin and Grazhina
Brashishkite. Production of another full-
length film is now completed — The Twelve
Months, based on the fairy-tale play by
Marshak, directed and produced by I.
Ivanov-Vano. The Brumberg sisters, those
veterans of cartoon direction, recently
completed production of an Albanian folk-
tale, The Helpful Stick. The young director
Ivan Aksenchuk has made a film from an
Uzbek tale. The Stork. Vladimir Polkovnikov
is finishing a screen version of an Indian folk-
tale, The Young Jackal and the Camel.
Mikhail Tsekhanovsky is at present working
on another Indian tale. The Little Girl and the
Tiger. This film will be ready by the end of
this year.

Director Dmitri Babichenko, who recently
made an interesting three-reel film which was
well reviewed in the press, A Million in the

Bag, is now working on a film to be called
Little Shego, which is based on themes from
Afghan folk-tales. This production is to be
completed in November of this year. One
of the studio's oldest directors, Alexander
Ivanov, has completed a "comic tale with a
moral for children" — Trouble in the Wood,
which relates how the bear ate too much honey
and then got toothache. (Moral — look after
your teeth and don't be afraid of the dentist.)
Two young directors. Yevgeni Raikovsky and
Boris Stepantscv, have made a film called
Murzilka's Adventures which is to be the
first of a series showing the same cartoon
characters.

Director Leonid Amalrik is working on a

14

film for small children to be called The Little
Ship; script is by Vladimir Suteyev. Director
Pyotr Nosov is completing a film based on a
Ukrainian foli<-tale. The Pic. Director
Mstislav Pashciicnko, in collaboration with
artist Boris Dezhkin, has finished Old
Acquaintances — this is a comedy of sport,
in which the audience once again meets the
same heroes as in The Unusual Match.
Besides the films already mentioned, there are
others now in production in the studio based
on Swedish. Norwegian, Danish. French,
Italian. Russian. Chinese and Egyptian folk-
tales. Also in production is a full-length
screen version of Andersen's The Sium- Queen,
directed by Lev Atamanov. The Brumberg
sisters are starting work on a film to be called
IVishe.f Come True or Zerbinoteau the Solitary.
This film is based on the French tale by
E. Labould about the happy wood-cutter
Zerbinot. Mstisla\' Pashchenko will begin
work on a four-reel film. Cipolliiio — a screen
version of the story by the well-known Italian
writer Gianni Rodari, about the adventures
of the "onion-boy" Cipollino, a tireless fighter
for justice who is a favourite with children.
Director Ivan Aksenchuk is to start work on
Cicco of Naples in the Magic Forest, the script
for which is written on themes from a play
by Gianni Rodari and M. Saratelli called The
Wishing Plant and from Rodari's poems. The
general theme of the script is peace, friendship
and happiness for children over all our planet.
I. Ivanov-Vano is thinking of work on a film
based on a Russian folk-tale — At the Pike's
Bidding — about the poor but cheerful Yemel,
who is amply rewarded for his wit, kindness
and hard work. After directing The Little Ship
Leonid Amalrik will be working on Pussycat's
House. The script is based on the fairy-tale
play of the same name by Marshak. The
young and talented artist Yevgeni Migunov is
starting work, in collaboration with Arkadi
Raikin, a well-known variety actor, on
production of a film-feuilleton to be called A

Fairy tale for Grown-Ups, which will criticise
some less worthy aspects of our daily life.

After the famous productions by Alexander
Ptushko The New Gulliver and The Golden Key,
three-dimensional puppet cartoons have
received a new lease of life: new, young
artists have taken up work in this genre, as
has also a famous master of the art, Sergei
Obraztsov, Artistic Director of the State
Puppet Theatre; he has just finished produc-
tion in the Soyuzmultfilm studio of a big
film called Heavenly Creature.

Director Vladimir Degtyarev is just finish-
ing work on a puppet film based on the well-
known Russian folk-tale Jack Frost. At
present in production is a puppet cartoon
called Safe in Port. This is a musical comedy
film with a contemporary theme; in it are
ridiculed people who hide inner poverty
beneath a glossy surface. This film is directed
by A. Karanovich. Two more satirical f.lms
are also in production — Three-Course Dinner,
directed by G. Lomidze, and The Bogy Who
Couldn't Scare .Anyone, directed by Roman
Davydov. The output of cartoon and puppet
films in the Soviet Union is increasing greatly
from year to year. Apart from the Soyuz-
multfilm studio cartoon production has been
started once again at the Tbilisi Film Studio.
Production of scientific and educational
cartoons is widely developed in the Soviet
Union; this form of cartoon-making is
mainly concentrated in the popular science
film studios of Moscow, Leningrad, Sverd-
lovsk, Kiev and other cities. Cartoon
technique is widely employed in documentary
and news-reel studios too, particularly at the
Central News-reel Studio in Moscow.

A whole series of higher educational
institutions of the Soviet Union — Moscow
University, the Moscow Aviation Institute
etc. — also various scientific research centres,
ha\c their own cartoon studios and labora-
tories producing scientific and teaching
cartoon films.

The Unusual Match, The Vivii j:,ar (U.S.S.R.)

aftada

ANIMATION FMS IN CANADA

GUY L, COTE, Montreal

THE story of the animated film in Canada
largely centres aroimd tiie vvori< accomplished
at the National Film Board, the official
government film agency established in 1940
by John Grierson to "interpret Canada to
Canadians and to other nations". Under the
direction first of Norman McLaren, then of
Jim Mackay and now of Colin Low, the
animation department of the N.F.B. has
grown from a tiny nucleus of workers in 1941
to a thriving unit of some fourteen animation
artists. During that time, over 75 short films
have been produced, not including special
animation sequences made for the Board's
documentary productions.

Diversity has been one of the characteristics
of the department's work, both in the multi-
tude of purposes for which its films have been
executed as well as in the variety of animation
techniques that have been employed, from
paper cut-outs to three-dimensional puppets,

from simple drawings on translucent paper to
complex cell films. The department works in
small tmits, whose members arc engaged in
one or two particular projects over long
periods of time, each drawing their own story
board, designing the backgrounds, working
out the animation, editing the picture and
supervising the sound recording — in fact, the
artists have the opportunity of following the
creation of their film through all its stages.
Thus, each member of Canada's animation
department has experimented with most of
the standard methods now employed in the
industry and each in his own way has evol-
ved fresh approaches to the technical and
artistic problems of film production.

Early in the Board's history, it was decided
to produce a series of animated films illustra-
tingCanadian folksongsof French and English
origin. Of these, the Chants Populaii es arc per-
haps the most familiar to European audiences.

The Romance of Transportation (Canada)

Cadet Rousselle, also, was a spirited version of the old
French balhid in which George Dunning and Colin Low
utilised to good effect the technique of metal cut-outs.
Dunning (who is now at the London office of U.P. A.) and
Jim Mackay (who works independently in Toronto) are
two well-known Canadian animation artists who have
since set up their own production units: their early
N.F.B. films — Grim Pastures and Three Blind Mice
(Dunning), Teeth are to Keep and Stanley Takes a Trip
(Mackay) — remain excellent examples of ingenuity, style
and conciseness in educational films. In later years,
artists such as Wolf Koenig. Robert Vcrrall. Grant Munro
and Sydney Goldsmith were to collaborate on equally
imaginative though more highly polished productions:
The Romance of Transportation (which won the British
Film Academy award in 1953), Riches of the Earth and
Huff and Puff', to name a few. Colin Low, the present
director of the unit, has not only distinguished himself
in the field of animated films {Cliallen(;c' : Science vs.
Cancer) but is also a sensitive director of documentaries
{Corral, Gold), an occupation which he feels gives him
perspective and useful stimulation in his animation work.
Now installed in its new quarters in Montreal, the unit
is currently working on two ambitious projects about
astronomy and architecture, as well as on numerous
sponsored films for government departments.

It is true to say. however, that the work of Norman
McLaren has somewhat overshadowed that of his
Canadian colleagues. His unique position at the Board,
which enables him to follow the byways of his fancy, has
earned for him the international reputation of being a
tireless experimenter. His pyrotechnical "doodles";
as his friends sometimes refer to them, always seem to
bring something new and unexpected to the screen.
From his early beginnings at the Glasgow School of
Fine Arts, McLaren has looked upon the business of
picture making as a real adventure, inventing his own
tools and dispensing with most of the paraphernalia that
surrounds conventional productions, including cameras
and sound recording apparatus. For many years, he has
been helped by Miss Evelyn Lambart, who has been
closely associated with a number of his films. For others,
he has worked alone, tirelessly, the twentieth-century
equivalent to a fifteenth-century miniatiuMst, often
drawing his images by hand directly on to 35 mm. film — •
frame by frame — controlling by the subtleties of his
brush stroke the life of those magic shadows which spring
out of his personal world of poetry and fantasy.

There is little doubt that his short abstractions such
as Begone Dull Care and Blinkity Blank (which won the
British Film Academy Award in 1956) often surprise and
delight an unsuspecting audience; nor can one deny
thai the message of Neighbours, the unfettered
espicglerie of Rhyihmetic, or even the simple gentleness
of La Poulette Grise, can hold and fascinate a spectator
by the novelty of the invention, the carefree humour
and the depth of observation which these films so

17

B linkity-^Jlank (Canada)

abundantly display. McLaren's work has
gained a succes d'estime which the com-
mercial exhibitors — had they somewhat more
initiative and daring— could readily transform
into a larger public acclaim. What is possibly
not so readily appreciated, however, is the
very great contribution which McLaren has
made to the aesthetics of the cinema, and
more particularly of the animation tilm. For,
in his own way, he has once again restated
the importance of the cinema's very funda-^
mentals: motion and picture, in the early
^l54S's, at a time when the naturalistic
cartoon was in its heyday, McLaren was
already instinctively asserting by his work
that the future of the animated film did not
reside in clever imitations of a sentimentalised
reality. Stripping the film to its baied, trans-
parent celluloid. McLaren dared to re-
investigate the powers of cinematic movement,
of visual and aural counterpoint, of intermit-
tent animation, of impressionistic clusters, of
overlapping dissolves, inventing his own
soimds, destroying the rectangular visual frame
itself by the very act of drawing a single brush
stroke across a succession of time-images.

"Animation is not the art of drawings-
that-move, but th^ grt of movements-that-are-
drawn" h.nr. "'^w/ritfgn McLaren. "What
happens between each frame is much more
important than what exists on each frame.
Animation is therefore the art of manipulat-
ing the invisible interstices that lie between
frames." Thus a uniquely dedicated film-
artist explains what he constantly reminds us
of in his work, from the charming C'est
Uaviron to the ethereal movements of
NowJsJUte-fime and the brilliant simplicitjrof
Het j - jMop r The road in which he is engaged
is a narrow one — ^few, if any, had they a pen, a
razor blade, a chalk pencil or a pair of
scissors, could hope to follow him or build
on his inventions. But McLaren's message is
clear and universal: through the most
abstract of his doodles, the most well-timed
of his movements, the most riotous of his
colour fantasies, McLaren tells us that the
world of the animated film is far from fully
explored* and that those invi s ible mtO Ea
between— frames-Still have many se

(Poland

IS ANIMATED FILM A TRUE AKT ?

ONE of the pioneers of tlie puppet film was a
Pole — Wladyslaw Starewiez. who worked in
France. Although animation was developed
to a minor extent in Poland itself before the
War by such film-makers as Franciszka and
Stefan Themerson, it was the post-war work of
Potecki and Wasilewski which established
contemporary Polish puppet and, later, cartoon
films. In this article. W'lodzimierz Haupe. film
director and Chairman of the .Artistic Council
of Animated Films in Poland, discusses the
problem of organising special animation studios
and developing cartoon and puppet films as
works of art.

In Poland we now have two centres
producing animated films. They are: the
Puppet Film Studio in Tuszyn near Lodz, and
the Cartoon Film Studio in Bielsko. A third
studio is being set up in Warsaw; it will
produce both puppet and cartoon films. In
these studios many film-makers are working;
the work of some of them is already known to
audiences at the Cannes, Venice, Edinburgh

and Karlovy Vary Festivals, but there are also
some younger film-makers who are busy
developing their technique. Of the senior
puppet film-makers I should mention Zenon
Wasilewski (The Dragon of Cracow), Wlodzi-
mierz Haupe and Halina Bielinska (Laurence's
Orchard, Circus Under the Stars and The Moon's
Story), and of the younger generation
Teresa Badzian (The Unconunon Journey and
The New House) and Edward Sturlis (The
Dirty Boy and Adventures of the Hoily-Toity
Knight): and for cartoon films: Lechoslaw
Marszalek (Stubborn Little Goat and Mrs.
Twardowska), Wladyslaw Nehrebecki (The
Woodpecker Told the Owl and Professor
Filutek in the Park), and Waclaw Wajzer (Tale
of Siskins and The Land of King Eel).

I have only mentioned above the titles of
such Polish animated films that are, or could
be, known to European audiences. But to be
exact 1 should add that the film-makers 1 have
named have produced about fifty films,
inclusive of those that are in preparation.

18

This is little enough, considering
it represents the results of a pro-
duction period extending over ten
years. But one must take into
account that a great deal of time
has been needed during these
years in experiment. The existing
animation studios have only
recently been organised in their
present form, and can produce
now about 10 animated films a
year. In the future, the output
should rise from 30 to about 60
films annually. The makers of
animated films have the working
conditions necessary for regular
production, and the chance to
develop individual artistry. They
have established their own Artistic
Council where they can freely
exchange their views. These dis-
cussions enable the more ex-
perienced to test their views
against those of the others, and so
confirm that their artistic line is
the right one, and for the less
experienced the discussions are of
help in the development of their
artistic individuality.

In this work there are two main
problems: first, unit organisation
and, second, the strictly creative
problem. Unit organisation de-
pends on the difficulty of main-
taining the artistic individuality
of each creative film-maker, as all
of them have to use the same tgam *" <■
of assistants. Between the ojigv-
1. nating film-makers and ttieir
^nished fitm stands a considerable
number of people. In the cartoon
film they are animators, in-
betweeners, tracers, painters; in
the puppet film setting-designers,
doll-makers, animators,
costumers, assistants, and so on.
This team of people, having ended
work under one director, have to
begin to work with another, whose
method of work and plastic style
are quite different. The difficulty
is that the team is scarcely able
to change immediately from one
style to another and so develops
a style of its own, derived from
that of the individual directors.

Katarynka, Professor FUutek's Duel,
t^alurynka (Poland)

Thus the artistic individuality of each director
is lost. This is why. instead of continuing
to use the same unit for ail directors, a method
of separate teams for each indi\ idual director
has been developed. This preserves artistic
individuality, but on the other hand makes the
organisation of production more difficult.
The directors claim now that it would be
better to retain individual creative teams
consisting of the director, cameraman,
scenographer. animators and assistants, btil
that the executive studio siiould remain
common to them all. This should offer a
unified production-line common to the whole
studio. In the immediate future some solution
to this question must be found.

The matter I referred to as the "creative

problem" concerns the direction in which the
animated film should develop. First of all
I should mention the advertising film. In
Poland this kind of production does not yet
exist. Sometimes an occasional advertising
film appears, but these do not represent
any standard form of production. The very
few foreign advertising films that we have seen
were on a low level, and this has had a
restraining influence on the de\clopment of
this branch of production at home.

So in principle, there exists in Poland only
the artistic animated film, unrelated to any
didactic purpose. I have already stressed that

up to now our puppet and cartoon films have
appeared only in a standard technical form.
We lack any experimental search for some
other less determined form of animation. I
mean such experiments as those of Norman
McLaren, Alexeiflf and others. This does
not mean that we have done nothing at all.
We regard the animated film not only as a
means of telling stories in recognisable forms,
but also as a means of developing shapes,
colours, sounds and all other artistic elements
which can arouse subtle artistic responses in
the audiences.

Nevertheless, we must not forget the people
to whom our work is addressed. It is difficult
to offer complicated artistic forms to an

audience unprepared for them b\ a gradual
process of breaking in. Personally. 1 admit
that 1 am working first for the audience and
then for myself I may be wrong, but 1 only
want to explain why Polish animation has
developed primarily in the direction of

entertainment only. But there exist many
different subjects for films at the moment.
Further, the lines of artistic interest of the
individual creative directors are essentially
established. They do not search for subjects
blindly, and they do not make finding a good
script dependent on chance. For example, we
can find in our production folk tales, short
stories, adaptation of episodes from classical
literature, satirical caricatures and, finally,
more experimental attempts to depart from
the norma! pattern of animation in the
direction of formal conception.

One of the important problems connected
with the further development of our produc-
tion is the lack of professional film criticism of
animated films. Film critics are always apt
to hold the opinion that the animated
film is something still clinging to the fair-
ground. 1 am not referring here merely to
Poland. The talks T had with the French
critic. Andre Martin, an enthusiast for the
animated film, prove that the absence of this
branch of film criticism is not confined to
Poland. This is an astonishing fact. Our
international achievements in every kind of
animation were denionstrated at the last
Cannes Festival and were a proof of how
greatly the animated film has developed in
recent years its capacity to offer audiences
hitherto unknown aitistic enjoyment and
responses. But the absence of proper criticism
and appreciation has a disintegrating effect
on the creators of animated films, and you
often hear that some of them — even those with
established reputations — abandon puppet or
cartoon film-making to take up other kinds of
film art. The position in Poland is better in
this respect because animated films are very
popular with our audiences, but in general
this problen") exists and it is wrong not to feel
concerned about the problems of colleagues
with whom we feel linked very closely.

Under such conditions the question whether
animated films can be counted seriously as art
or have only a future in advertising (which
does not exclude its own artistic values) is not
a foolish query. The teething troubles of the
animated film, which e\en after fifty years is
still the cinema's big child, can be cured only
by the creative film-makers ihemsehes.

1 would like to express my profound
belief that the animated film is really a great
art form.

20

^ssecLoslovafcia

K REVIEW OF
THE FAST YEAR

.lAROSLAV BROZ, Prague

FOR the uninitiated observer from abroad,
the last year was a barren one for Czecho-
slo\;ik puppeteers and cartoonists. One
might perhaps even speak of a certain stag-
nation in the creative work of the Czecho-
slovak puppet and cartoon film-makes.
Even Jiri Trnka, the most talented of artists in
this special field was unproductive for a while
after finishing his not too successful film in
three parts, The Good Soldier Schneik,
because he needed to become familiar with
the new technique — the use of the wide
screen. Those who love the Czechoslovak
puppet films remember longingly the time
when from Trnka's unit there issued one
weird and wonderful puppet film after
another !

Not even Trnka's colleagues and com-
petitors, Hermina Tyrlova and Karel Zeman
of the puppet studio in Gottwaldov, made
any otitstanding films this year. During the
making of the fairy tale puppet film Goldilocks,
Hermina Tyrlova attempted a dramatic style
which was essentially foreign to her lyrical
talent. And Karel Zeman, after his out-
standing feature-length film Journey to
Primaeval Times (shown at the Edinburgh
Festival in 1955), only produced a light and
amusing fragment Mr. Prokouk, a kind of
intermezzo in his work.

That perhaps is the right word — intermezzo.
The past year was an intermezzo in the work
of the Czechoslovak puppeteers and car-
toonists. It was not a period of stagnation,
but rather a temporary pause during which to
gather forces, a time of search for new
media and new materials. But at the same
time during this period in which masters of

0- ^ V^v--

Goldilocks (Czechoslovakia)

the art of animation were discovering a new
path, a number of new talents appeared on the
scene. To start with, Bretislav Pojar, the
most talented of Trnka's pupils (his film
A Drop Too Much which received a mention
two years ago at Cannes introduced him to the
film public) has made a short and amusing
detective film called Spejbl on the Scent, the
heroes of which are the two well-known
puppets of the .losef Skupa theatre company.
Pojar is now working on two further short
films The Lion and the Ditty and The Puppet
Review. His colleague, Stanislav Latal, has
made use of two other well-known figures in
puppetry in a fairy tale for children called
Kinasek and Kiitilka at the Fair. He has
heightened the miming potentialities of the
puppets by making use of animation in stages
(stop-frame). Milos Makovec. a director of
feature films, has made his debut in puppet
films with The Lost Sentry shot on the basis

21

of a popular skii from past times. (It gained a
"mention" this year at Venice). Two of
Zeman's pupils, Zdenek Rozkopal, the
artist, and Arnost Kupciii, the animator,
have made a popular science trick film called
Black Diamond which deals with the story of
the origin of coal in the earth.

But let us return to the masters of puppetry.
They too have been active during the past
year or so, although the results of this
activity must be judged in the future. Trnka
has definitely decided to adapt Shakespeare's
Midsummer Night's Dream into the medium
of the puppet film. For the present he has
produced a script complete with drawmgs
and sketches, and he is also doing something
which makes him the envy of any feature
film producer — he is creating the actors for
the puppet film. As to his plans, we can only
tell you this much, that Midsummer Nighfs
Dream will be presented in puppet panto-
mime style.

Hermina Tyrlova is working on a fairy tale
about toys come to life, called The Fairy
Tale about a Naughty Ball, which lells how a
little ball that would not listen to Grand-
father's warning vvas deceived by an evil kite.
Her next film will be Kalamajka, a puppet
dance suite based on Moravian national
songs.

Karel Zeman, after many experiments in
the most various subjects, has found the one
most suited to him in science fiction, and he is
preparing a film which is being awaited
eagerly based on Jules Verne's The Discovery
of Destruction (Face au Drapeau). Zeman
intends to produce this film as a composite
trick film (with puppets, animated cartoon
and live actors) in the style of the original
illustrations to Jules Verne's novel. His aim
is to reproduce as faithfully as possible the
atmosphere and colouring of Jules Verne's
period, which is dear to young people.

The situation in cartoon films is similar
to that of the puppet film. Eduard Hofman,
whose Doggie and Pussy (based on the fairy
story by Josef Capek, the painter and writer—
the brother of Karel Capek, the author of

The Creation of the World (Czechoslovakia)

R.U.R.) SO delighted audiences of children,
has found in France a new theme and artistic
inspiration for his current film in the work
of the cartoonist Jean Eff'el; he is making a
cartoon series in three parts of Effel's The
Creation of the World. The first part is almost
finished, and the two further parts about the
creation of Adam and Adam's union with
Eve are in preparation. It is worth noting
that the commentary in verse and the dialogue
belonging to all the characters will be spoken
by the comedian Jan Werich, whom filmgoers
may remember from his dual star role in the
film The Emperor's Baker.

Of the other cartoonists, who have recently
concentrated pcriiaps almost too much on the
production of advertising films, the only work
worthy of attention is the medium-length film
The Devil and Kate, directed by Vaclav
Bedrich (who made Boil, Little Pot, which
gained a "mention" in Venice), in which
use has been made of a national fairy tale in
the traditional Czech style, the drawings of
which are the work of the artist, Josef Lada.

For the smaller children a short film called
How the Mole Earned his Trousers will be
finished by the end of this year. This is a
modern fairy tale which explains how flax
is cultivated, processed and used. By setting
the action in the animal world (which in itself
catches the attention of a young audience)
and by introducing humour and wit, Zdenek
Miler, the director, has avoided giving an
impression of giving instruction.

On the whole, we think the outlook for the
Czechoslovak cartoon and puppet film is a
satisfactory one.

Song of the Prairie. Svejbl on the Scent (Czfichoslo vakia)

MIMATED FILM FESTIVAL

LONDON, 1957

THE first International Animated Film Festival in Great Britain is taking place at the National
Film Theatre, South Bank, London, from 23rd February to 8th March, 1957.

The aims of the Festival are to demonstrate the contribution of animated films to the
cinema during the past sixty years and to present the international development of this medium.

Productions from the following countries are being shown:

U.S.A.

China

Canada

Rumania

France

Japan

U.S.S.R.

Italy

Norway

Holland

Germany

Spain

Poland

Denmark

Czechoslovakia

Estonia

Mexico

England

A wide range of techniques is being demonstrated, from fluid celluloid animation to stop
motion puppet animation, from silhouette to stereoscopic films and from abstracts painted
directly on to film to films about paintings.

The entries fall into distinct categories, according to their content. Each day a different aspect
of animation is featured, such as the comic, poetic, satirical, lyrical, dramatic and caricature

cartoon, as well as puppets.

The daily programmes comprise one feature and five or six short supporting cartoons'
Among the features is the French "La Berg^re et le Ramoneur", the Russian "Golden Antelope"'
the Italian "Rose of Baghdad", "Animal Farm" and at least three American full-length films-
Some of the latest short cartoons from Europe and the U.S.A. are being shown for the first
time in this country, including the works of Henri Gruel and Tarcaly (France) and Imre Nemeth
(America).

An exhibition of original celluloids and backgrounds is to be arranged in the entrance hall

of the Festival Cinema.

23

BOOK REVIEW

The Focal Encylopaedia of Photography. The Focal
Press, £5.5.0d.

For a review to do real justice to a magnum opus
constructed on the scale that iliis one is, it sliould
really be written by a team of experts; experts who
would be the counterparts of the editorial team of ten,
the fifty specialist consultants and the 197 authors
from twenty-three countries who together were
responsible for the two thousand articles which make
up this new photographic encyclopedia. I am
slightly encouraged, ho\\o\or, by the thought of the
reviewer who, singlehandcd. tackled the Encyclopa;dia
Brilannica.

The scope and aims of the Encyclopiedia of Photo-
graphy are set out at the beginning in the publisher's
preface, "The subject of this encyclopaedia," it says,
"is the realm of photography — ^its technique, its art
and its business. Adjoining and related technologies
. . . arc covered in ample detail." And even the most
casual look through this huge book — it runs to over
l,.^0() pages of text — suggests that the editors and their
collaborators ha\e achieved what they set out to do
impressively, and in the style one has come to expect
of the Focal Press; i.e., technical subject matter dealt
with in straightforward jargon-frce English, and well-
chosen and designed illustrations to illuminate the
text. Incidentally, it has been ten years in the making
and has grown three-fold on the original design.

Contributions have been sought from all over the
world; the impressive list of authors and consultants
from the Commonwealth, U.S. A . U.S.S.R.. China
and most of the European countries bear testimony to
this, and it is good to see the names of so many mem-
bers of the British Film Academy in the list. Roger
Manvell and Denis Forman, for example, have been
responsible for the entries on the B.F.A. and the B.F.I,
respectively. I. D. Wratten has acted as consultant on
Cinematography, and R. .1. Spotliswoode, W. Sus-
chitsky, and Howard Cricks are among the other
Academy members contributing.

It is quite impossible in the space at my disposal to
give any adequate idea of the scope and range of the
entries. One can hint at it by picking out at random a
few names of international experts like Rudolph
Arnheim, Charles Brown, Harold Edgerton, Max
Factor .Ir., Dr. G. B. Harrison, who have contributed
articles on subjects lying in their spheres. Probably
the best way to get a bird's-eye \ ievv of the vast field
covered by the encyclopaedia is to look at the Synopsis
of Subject Divisions where all the related major
entries are brought together under subject headings.
This also makes it an indispensable aid to anyone
wishing to follow up a particular line of study or
research.

For instance, I decided to make Cinematography my
research project and my sampling dip into the en-
cyclopaedia. Under this heading in the synopsis all the
entries dealing w ith the subject were grouped under two
sub-headings. General and Special Aspects in the
followmg manner: Under General: Cinematography —
Cine Terms — Cine Films (substandard) — Perforations
— magazine — spool — cine film processini; — Cine labora-
tories — splicing — Projection principles — Cine history.
Under Special Aspects: Hidi Speed Cinenuiiography —
Electroplane camera— Eye camera - Time Lapse Photo-
graphy— Sound Recording — Three Dimensional Pro-
jection- -Cinenui Stills.

When assessing this section, I bore in mind first
that, as far as this encyclopaedia was concerned, cine-
matography is "an adjoining and related technology"

and, secondly, again quoting the publishers, "any
encyclopaedia is mostly used for tracking down
information on subjects with which the reader is not
particularly familiar. No specialist is likely to seek
information within his own field of work from a
general reference book." Within this frame of
reference 1 consider the subject has been thoroughly
covered.

Though 1 read through all the articles I can only
make detailed references to a few of the main ones.
The general article on Cinematography, the joint effort
of Julien Caunter and G. H. Sewell, succeeds more than
adequately in squeezing a hogshead into a pint pot.
I did feel though that both in the illustrations and in
the bibliography there seemed an undue emphasis on
sub-standard practice. The glossary of Cine Terms
compiled by Tony Rose provides clear and concise
definitions of most of the technical expressions in
frequent use. Cine History by Brian Coe of the Kodak
Research Laboratories is in my opinion absolutely
first class — though I wonder if I might dare to
challenge him on one small point and suggest,
writing entirely from fnemory, that La Cucuracha and
not Tlowers and Trees was the first three-colour
Technicolor picture to be shown?

You realise, reading this article, how long ago all
these new gimmicks that have appeared in the last
few years were first thought of. For instance,
"Cineorama", a process using 10 projectors to throw
a 360° picture on the walls of a circular building was
patented in 1897. (Apparently the main reason why
it never came into use was the difficulty of cooling a
small projection room housing ten arc-projectors!)
And in 1900 Louis Lumiere using 75 mm. film was
showing pictures on a 65 foot screen to audiences at an
exhibition. A British patent of 1898 outlined the
principles of stereo-cinematography by both anaglyph
and polarising methods.

In conjunction with Brian Coe's article one should
also read the one on Chronophotography which
describes the investigations by Muybridge and Marey
into human and animal motion.

Among the articles dealing with Special Aspects I
should like to mention for their general excellence
High Speed Cinematography by G. T. Schwartz, Time
Lapse Photography by R. McV. Weston. 3 D-Projection
by Howard Cricks — though there is no mention in the
bibliography attached to this article of the books by
the Spottiswoode brothers, Clyne, Dudley, etc.
Projection Principles by G. H. Cook of Taylor,
Taylor & Hobson, apart from its own merits, is as
good an example as any of the very thorough cross-
referencing which runs all through the encyclopiedia.

Returning to consideration of the work as a whole,
a word must be said about the illustrations: the
diagrams, always a feature of Focal Press books, are
excellent and have been used gcnerotisly to point the
examplations given in the text. In addition some
400 beautifully reproduced photographs "serve a
twofold purpose. In some cases ... to clarify
technical points . . . more often, however, they are
meant to exemplify the range and variety of expression
of which the photographic medium is capable."

Finally, this is by no means a cheap book, but when
you remember that it is a whole photographic
reference library in one volume, it is good value for the
money.

Everyone associated with the Encyclopaedia of
Photography can be justifiably proud of a fine
project finely carried out.

A. E. JEAKINS.

24

m BuiTisfi FILM k:mm

THE BRITISH FILM ACADEMY was founded in 1947 by a number of leadmg British
jSlm-makers to advance the art and technique of film-making by . discussioq
and research and to encourage the exchange of ideas between creative film-
makers both at home and abroad. Its present membership numbers some 400
senior British film-makers. The present activities of the Academy include:

"jHf the organisation of weekly discussion meetings and screenings
for its Members and Associates during a nincrmonth season each
year;

tAc the presentation of Annual Awards, seven for the best films of tfie
year, British and fordgn, imd five for acting performances;

the preparation of books and other publications concerned with
the history and technique of film-making, and with the iexpression
of the British film-makers' point of view about the medium in
which they work;

the development of contacts at home and abroad between British
and foreign film-makers, and the encouragement of further
interest in the best in British production through lectures and
broadcasts in Britain and overseas, and through the Academy's
books and publications;

<]jkr the collection and preservation of film-scripts, documents and
other information relating to British films and fihn-makefs.

THE BniTISa FIL^ ilCADSlY

PATRONS

J. Arthur Rank Organisation, Ltd. Ealing Studios, Ltd. Associated

British Picture Corporation, Ltd. London Film Productions, Ltd:

Technicolor,- Ltd. Kodak, Ltd. Monty Berman, Ltd: B; J. Simmons & Cb;
(1941:) ;Ltd. Anvil Films, Ltd. Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films, Ltdr
u. Mole-Richardson (England) Ltd.' " "

' Other Supporters include :

Shell' Petroleum Company, Ltd. British Lion Films ^Ltd.

National Screen Service, Ltd. Kinematograph Renters Society, Ltd.

: " The British Petroleum Company, Ltd.

OFFICERS OF THE ACADEMY

^ ' • '* ■ - Chairman: EDGAR ANS I'HY ' • ■ ' •

' ' ^ Vice-chairmen: JOHN BRYAN IAN DALRYMPLE

Hon. Anthony Asquith
Sir Michael Balcon .
Vincent Korda
David Lean, C.B.E.

Sic'Michael Balcoh
Ken Cameron, O.B.E.
■ Henry Cornelius
.Charles Crichton ;-:

COUNCIL OF FELLOWS:
Vivien Leigh

Sir Laurence Olivier . ...
George Pearson, O.B.E.
Michael Powell

Sir Carol Reed
PaulRotha
^ Albert Smith
•Basil WrJght

COUNCIL OF MANAGEMENT 1^56-57 :

Mary Field, O.B.E. . _ James Lawrie

George.Gunn • . • ; - Muif Mathieson, O.B.E.

Guy Hamilton ■'r- Peter Tanner

Frank Launder ■ : Michael Truman

D//-«c/or.- Roger Mahvell, Ph.D. - .-
Executive Secretary: Mrs. T. J. Stede ■ „

Honorary Publicity Officers: Vivienne Knight and Theo Cowan

Watford Printers Ltd., Vicarage Road, Watford (Phone 2757 & 3885)